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Seattle police release audio of woman's fatal shooting

Posted on Friday, June 23, 2017 by Willis Stokes

Florida Carroll holds her grandson Quayvis Carroll as they visit a memorial for a woman set up outside an apartment building at Magnuson Park in Seattle on Sunday, June 18, 2017. She was arrested 26 times, most recently on June 5th, two weeks before she was shot and killed.

Lyles' case should be forwarded to a mental health court, the reportsaid. After entering the apartment, a woman who assumed to be Charleena can be heard describing the reported burglary when police yell "get back", and gun shots are fired.

There were three children inside the home at the time of the shooting, police said.

"It is clear that the "historic reforms" within the Seattle police department, a department with a long record of racially discriminatory violence, have fallen far short of what was needed to keep Lyles and her family safe, " said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, a Seattle resident and the executive director of the nonprofit group MomsRising, in a statement.

Lyles was dealing with mental health issues, according to family.

Lyles had an extensive criminal record and she was released from jail June 14.

Detective Patrick Michaud said Seattle officers are required to carry a less-lethal option to subdue suspects and have a choice between a Taser, baton or pepper spray.

Although Lyles had previous altercations with the police, none of this justifies or explains the use of force, much less deadly force, on a tinypregnant woman who was holding (or even wielding) a knife.

The killing occurred as Seattle police are under federal oversight following a 2011 investigation that found officers were too quick to use force.

In the recording, officers are heard calmly speaking to Lyles for several minutes before the situation escalates.

"She got an officer safety caution on her", the first officer says.

Family members said Lyles had experienced mental health problems in the previous year and that she was several months pregnant, which BuzzFeed News couldn't immediately confirm.

A Department of Justice investigation in 2012 found that the Seattle Police department regularly used excessive force.

Earlier on the tape, before the officers head into the apartment, they talk about the woman previously waving large metal shears, trying to prevent officers from leaving her apartment and making statements about her and her daughter turning into wolves. The group that runs the complex, Solid Ground, says the people who live there have resources offered to them to get help, but only if they ask. A message left for the Seattle Police Department by InsideEdition.com Tuesday was not immediately returned.

- The two officers were white.

Police say the officers went to the apartment Sunday morning, and, at some point, were confronted by a woman armed with a knife.

In a transcript of the incident released by Seattle Police, one of the officers asked the other to stun the woman after she pulled out the knife. There's no way you could've taken a taser and taken her down?

Family members also said she was several months pregnant and had been struggling with mental health issues for the past year.

"Motherf--s,". All these were revealed in an audio recording, which was released by the Seattle police department. At 9:38, one of the officers' arms can be seen in the doorway. "This will be fully investigated".

Seattle police admitted that they could opt for "less lethal force options" at the time. As part of a federal consent decree, the Seattle Police Department has emphasized training in "crisis intervention", which stresses techniques for lowering the tension when encountering people with mental illness or other cognitive problems.